PROSPECTING- Finding New Customers For Your Business

Sales is the lifeblood of every organization. Without sales, even the biggest companies will wind up and 'close shop'. Prospecting is the lifeblood of the sales process. Without prospecting, the sales process is a butterfly without wings- handicapped.

The more time you spend with better prospects, the more sales you will make. Brian Tracy, one of the most influential sales speakers of our time, says the most inmportant rule for selling success is spending more time with better prospects. If you want to be successful in business, or your sales career, you have to master the skill of prospecting.

You get a chance to speak to a prospect for the first time, what do you do? Do you begin to blurt out your sales pitch and tell him how your product is the state-of-the-art, best thing that ever happened since ice-cream?

Read on, as I share with you, important tips on successful prospecting.

1. Be Professional. Realise that everybody is busy, and you are not the reason why the prospect is at that place at that time. Do not expect him to drop all his doing to listen to you. No sir! The prospect has his own business, and schedule, he has a list of important things to do, and that list, my dear salesperson, does not include you! you have got to find a way to get his attention and make him WANT to listen to you. You don't force him to listen to you, you make him interested in doing so. You do not barge in on the prospect, interrupt whatever it is they were doing before you arrived, and ask him to listen to your sales pitch. Well, except you've got a gun to his head!
2. Put Your Best Foot Forward.Realise that your aim is not to sell your product/service, but to get an appointment with the prospect. most likely what you will be given is a few minutes- maybe five, maybe less.Your most important task is to get the prospect to actually LISTEN to what you have to say. Your first sentence should be so powerful, it gets his complete attention. Never mention your product/service in your first sentence. If you do, you will most likely kill the sale. Your first sentence should pique his interest- it should make him think "For real?"
3. Get A Moving Opening Statement. This is an extension of point 3 above. In the first few seconds, the prospect decides whether or not he is going to listen to you, so it had better be good! Imagine this scenario: you go into a room filled with busy people, everyone occupied  with very important work. Suddenly, you take a hammer and bang loudly on a desk. What is going to happen? Everyone, no matter how busy, will look up immediately, and turn their attention to the direction of the noise. Yes? Of course! That is what your first statement should do. You must carefully decide the words you will speak, and rehearse them all the time till you memorize them and are able to say it naturally and fluently at any time, without hesitation. If your opening statement fails to get you the desired response/attention, then you must go back and change it. Keep tweaking it till you find one that works. Remember, it must focus, not on your product/service, but on the SPECIFIC NEED of the prospect.
4. Make The Prospect Comfortable. Make them relax, feel comfortable by letting them know they are in no way obliged to making a buying decision. No one likes to feel pressured, or trapped in a box.
5. Ask Questions. Always ask good question. The person who asks question has control. Don't let the prospect take charge of the conversation by asking the questions. Remember it's not in just asking questions, but asking the right questions. Ask open-ended questions, the kind that will get the prospect talking, not the one's that require yes/no answers.
6. Name-Dropping. You have to master the art of 'name-dropping'. Refer to other satisfied customers. People are more inclined to make buying decisions if they know that other people have made the same decisions, especially people they know, trust, or hold in high regard.
7. Get A Specic Appointment Time. Don't let the prospect wisely send you on your way by promising an appointment sometime later in the future. Get him to make a specific comitment, help him fix the appointment. You could say "Thank you Mr. Greenshield, when would be a convinient time for you?". If this doesn't get a specific time from him, you could further ask " would sometime around eleven on tuesday be good for you, or 2pm on Friday?" This will help in pinning an exact time. Remember to confirm the appointment (through the phone, or an eMail), like a day before that day, so you don't end up showing up to realise the appointment had been cancelled, or the prospect busy, or even out of town. Lastly, never expect anyone to call you back. No matter how genuine or promising the prospect sounds, make that call! Don't sit and wait for the prospect to call you, you need him more than he needs you, pick up your phone and make the call.

That's it for now, folks, practice these tips and let's know the improvement you get in your prospecting.
Don't forget to drop a line in the comment box and let us know which of the tips are most valuable to you, or give us more tips that have worked for you. Everyone needs information, you know.

Have yourselves a beautiful day.

Six Habits That Will Improve Your Sales Productivity This Week

Tick Tick Tick goes the clock. As Sunday gradually reaches it's end, you don't have to be filled with grief or dread. Dear salesman, you don't have to go through the week depressed and unfulfilled. Little drops of water, as they say, make a mighty ocean. You can improve your sales productivity if only you drop some bad sales habits, and form new ones.

Do not stop reading yet, these ideas will change your sales life, and your entire life. Get a pen and paper, and write out every  step you will take every day of the week to move you closer to your sales goals.

Sales Habits That Will Improve Your Sales This Week.

1. Learn to Write! With an ink pen, or with a digital pen. Write out your goals for the week. What did you achieve, in number of sales, and sales presentations last week? How many sales presentation do you want to have this week, how many prospects do you want to see? How many sales do you want to make? Write this down Sunday night, or Monday morning. Write out, also, the first three prospects you will speak to this week. Remember: Winners set goals, losers give excuses.
2. Be an early riser. Take action early, first things first. Get up early in the morning, earlier than you usually do. Set out early, make your sales calls early in the morning. Mornings are the best time to start your sales activity. Don't wait till afternoon, or midday. Don't tag yourself as an afternoon, or evening person, and so, decide you will only make your sales calls at those times. First things first!
3. Follow up! After every sales presentation, call up the key prospects and thank them for their time, whether or not they bought from you. Call or send an email, whichever is more appropriate as the case may be.
4. Always ask for referrals. For every prospect you speak with, before you leave, ask politely for leads. Be specific when you ask, for instance, instead of saying " Thank you so much Mr. Zuckerberg, do you know anyone who could benefit from our services?" say "Thank you Mr Zuckerberg, I believe that our services would (also) be needed by some of your colleagues, can you please give me some names to start with?" 
5. Analyse your product/service on Monday, and find out new benefits of your product that you never thought of before. Look at it from a new light, figure out the needs of the customers that this benefit will fill, and focus on this. Sell the product/service from this angle this week, Infuse this into the other benefits.
6. Be positive, feel confident! Look at yourself in the mirror and say to yourself "I am the best. I will achieve all my sales goals today, I am confident and I feel good". Always act confident even if you really don't feel so. 

Alright, go ahead and have yourselves a great week. But before you leave, please drop a line in the comment box, and let me know which of the six ideas you find most helpful. You can also add your own ideas, we all need ideas, don't we? 

Have a great sales week.

Three Attributes of Successful Salespeople

1. They are action oriented
2. They are good listeners
3. They have high physical and mental energies